Low- and middle-income countries face major challenges to their health systems. These include a high burden of communicable disease and an emerging non-communicable disease burden. Coverage of effective services and interventions is inadequate and often constrained by funding availability. At the same time, the international financing environment is changing rapidly, with new funding streams becoming available in part as a response to the challenges of meeting the Millennium Development Goals. These countries have taken a diversity of approaches to health care financing policies and programs to face the old and emerging challenges. This is increasingly accompanied by conceptual and applied research which is contributing to our understanding of how different financing mechanisms can contribute to the overall objectives of a health care system. The goal of this volume is to assemble the best of this research and synthesize 'best practices' for the benefit of researchers, policy makers and high level administrators, dealing with all elements of health care financing and focusing on both middle- and low-income settings, to represent the experiences of all regions of the developing world.

Health systems in low- and middle-income countries: an economic and policy perspective outlines the key aspects and issues concerning health systems of low- and middle-income countries, recognising the current global context within which these systems operate and the dynamics of this context. It brings together a set of renowned authors to tackle the issues that face population health and health care in the twenty-first century. The focus is predominantly low- and middle-income countries, with a distinct meeting of economic and policy perspectives, and grounding analysis of key issues within the broader international context. The book therefore provides a unique and comprehensive analysis of health systems, with a very different and unique 'flavour' in the field. It should have wide appeal to those engaged in health and health care, including health professionals, researchers and students, as well as those outside traditional health professions but with increasing interest within health issues, such as trade policy makers, researchers and students.

By international standards, health workers in Ethiopia are in short supply. In addition, those who do enter the health fields and remain in the country disproportionately live and work in the capital, Addis Ababa. This paper uses detailed data gathered from nearly 1,000 health workers to examine the incentives and constraints that health workers face when choosing where to work, the likely responses of workers to alternative incentive packages, and the longer term performance of the health worker labour market. This working paper was produced as part of the World Bank's Africa Region Health Systems for Outcomes (HSO) Program. The Programme funded by the World Bank, the Government of Norway, the Government of the United Kingdom and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), focuses on strengthening health systems in Africa to reach the poor and achieve tangible results related to Health, Nutrition and Population. The main pillars and focus of the program center on knowledge and capacity building related to Human Resources for Health, Health Financing, Pharmaceuticals, Governance and Service Delivery, and Infrastructure and ICT.